Championship Irish dancer dies in fishing accident

A champion Irish dancer has drowned in a fishing accident on Long Island Sound.

Billy Laube, 20, from Plainview in Suffolk county, died after the flat-bottomed dinghy he was fishing from capsized near Fort Salonga on Saturday night.

Laube's three companions, two men and a woman, were helped to safety by a passing canoeist.

The four friends were fishing off a 10-foot-long johnboat when it overturned late Saturday evening.

Police say they received a 911 call at about 9.45 p.m. and sent out a marine rescue unit.

However, by the time they arrived, the canoeist had managed to help the other three back to shore.

Laube's body was discovered shortly after 2 a.m.

Laube - who trained at the Schade Academy of Irish Dance in Levittown - won the 2000, 2001 and 2002, regional titles in Philadelphie where he took top honors in the Under-10, Under-11 and Under-12 championships.

He is survived by his parents, William J. and Beth Laube; his sister Christina Laube; and his grandparents Hilda and Jack Laube and Joan and H. Mark Cochrane.

His funeral will take place tomorrow at St. Pius X Roman Catholic Church in Plainview.